http://www.tennisaustralia.com.au/pages/image.aspx?assetid=RDM37911.6330873843
Melbourne, November 27 - Victoria’s Chris Guccione and Western Australia’s Casey Dellacqua are the recipients of the Australian Open maindraw wildcards as the best performed male and female players on the Kia Pro Circuit.

Twenty-year-old Dellacqua dominated the first half of the 2005/2006 women’s circuit. Her singles title win in Port Pirie, South Australia, followed singles and doubles victories at the US $25,000 events in Rockhampton and Mackay, Queensland, to put her out of reach of nearest rivals Beti Sekulovski and Cindy Watson and pushed her year-end ranking to 204.

Guccione was the standout performer earlier in 2005 on the Kia Pro Circuit when he won the Challenger events in Burnie and Canberra without dropping a set in either tournament. He has spent the latter part of the year getting further playing experience on the US Futures and Challengers circuit.

The 20-year-old left hander currently has a career high ranking of 149 with highlights in 2005 including battling his way through qualifying to reach the second round at the French Open, a third round appearance on grass at the ATP Queen’s tournament in the UK where he lost to Tim Henman in three sets. He also made his Davis Cup Debut with a victory against Alexander Peya in Australia’s 5-0 first round defeat of Austria.

Director of Player Development at Tennis Australia, Craig Tiley, said that providing Australia’s rising stars with greater opportunities to play top level tennis is paramount.

http://www.tennisaustralia.com.au/pages/image.aspx?assetId=RDM38644.5145590972
Casey Dellacqua: dominated the first half of the 2005-2006 Kia Pro Circuit.

"One of our objectives in Australia as we move forward into the new era is to expose our up-and-coming players to more top level events, both at home and overseas.

"Both players have earned their spots in this year’s Australian Open maindraw through their standout performances on the Kia Pro Circuit and I’m sure the experience that awaits them in January will help them in further developing their respective games."

DutchieGirl

Nov 28th, 2005, 03:36 AM

:D Well done Casey and Chris! :D

ozfan44

Nov 28th, 2005, 06:49 AM

Go Casey

Hopefully she gets a half decent draw!

Harju.

Nov 28th, 2005, 11:46 AM

Well deserved for Casey :yeah:.

M&M

Nov 29th, 2005, 11:23 AM

congrats!!!

hope aga gets a qualy wc, does anybody know how the criteria is??? 2 wcs will go to france, one md and one qd... and teh others all 2 australia???

DutchieGirl

Nov 29th, 2005, 11:28 AM

congrats!!!

hope aga gets a qualy wc, does anybody know how the criteria is??? 2 wcs will go to france, one md and one qd... and teh others all 2 australia???

No, there is an Asian MD WC, and Britain gets a WC somewhere too (quite possibly also MD).

M&M

Nov 29th, 2005, 11:38 AM

No, there is an Asian MD WC, and Britain gets a WC somewhere too (quite possibly also MD).